The Last Day
by seafrost
Summary: It's the last day of summer, the day before Ginny returns for her last year at Hogwarts, and time is running out for Harry to tell her how he feels...


**The Last Day:**

Any time now, Harry Potter was going to do it. He was going to tell Ginny Weasley how he felt.

The trouble was, deciding he was going to do it and actually _doing _it were two very different things. A few times before, he had told himself to stop being stupid and just tell her. Once, he had almost got the words out when Fred had crashed into the living room, proclaiming that Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had a higher share of the market than any other joke shop in the whole of England, including Zonko's. Another time, there had been no interruptions, but the words had seemed to just stick in his throat, causing Ginny to ask if he was okay. After that, he was much too embarrassed to continue.

And time was running out. Tomorrow, Ginny would be returning for her final year at Hogwarts and he wouldn't be able to see her every day anymore. At the end of his seventh year, Harry had met Voldemort in a duel that would turn out to be simultaneously the worst and best night of Harry's life. He had beaten Voldemort, but turned himself into a killer. Sybil Trelawney had been right.

In the long weeks after that Harry had returned to the Burrow, spending most of the time sleeping, or just sitting staring into space. His sleep was plagued with nightmares and he took no interest in the fate of the remaining Death Eaters. It seemed like his whole purpose of being had been snatched from underneath him; he had defeated Voldemort, so was now of no use to anyone. In the end, it had been Ginny who had helped to pull him out of his slump, ignoring his mood and forcing him to carry on as normal, treating him as if he wasn't a murderer but just a normal teenager fresh out of Hogwarts.

After a while, he had started to be dependent on her. He sought her out during the day, to play Quidditch with or to just talk to. He never minded when she found him in one of his worse moods and was grateful that she never seemed to push him too hard to talk about that night. He would sit next to her at lunch and dinner and be grateful for her chatty presence that diverted most of the "how are you?" questions directed to him. Even as he began to come to terms with everything that had happened, his dependence on her continued.

If he was honest, he didn't know how he felt, not clearly. He knew that he fancied her, thought she was really funny and pretty and kind and thoughtful, but at first he had told himself that it was just a crush, that it would go away in the fullness of time. But it hadn't. If anything, it had just gotten worse, to the point where he just _had _to tell her.

And that was how Harry Potter found himself walking through the run down garden of the Burrow the day before Ginny returned to Hogwarts. She had seemed unusually quiet at lunch, and had mentioned something about going for a swim before heading off on her own. After much internal deliberation, Harry had decided this was the perfect time to tell her how he felt.

He found her in the lake just beyond the reaches of the Burrow. The day was a pleasantly warm one, and the sun glinted lazily off the stone rocks encircling the lake. Ginny was sitting on the edge of it in an uncharacteristically peaceful pose, swinging her legs in the water. Harry saw that she was wearing a swimming costume consisting of a vest top and shorts that, like most of her clothes were going a bit faded and tatty. They were covered in horizontal stripes of blue and green, but constant wear over the years had made them fade into a nice turquoise colour. Harry swallowed abruptly and made his way over to her, sitting on the stone next to hers.

"Oh, hi Harry" she said, turning to face him. Harry willed his eyes to remain on her face and noticed that she looked a little bit down in the dumps.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Ginny looked a bit taken back by the question, as if it was one she had not been expecting, forcing Harry to realised that in all the time she had been taking care of him, he hadn't done the same for her. Feeling angry at himself, he watched her pick at a cluster of weeds growing up between the adjacent stones they sat side by side on.

"Yeh," she replied eventually, "I'm just going to miss all this when I go back tomorrow. You three won't be there anymore, it won't be the same…"

She trailed off haltingly, and Harry remembered that in the past two years, she had spent most of the time with them, Neville and Luna. Now that they were leaving, the only person she was really close to remaining would be Luna, and they weren't even in the same house. Before he knew what he was doing, he opened his mouth to speak.

"I'm going to miss you."

Ginny turned to him, this time not attempting to hide the shock on her face. Harry felt his cheeks flush and focussed his attention deliberately on the opposite side of the lake. He hadn't meant to let that come out, but it was true. He _was _going to miss her a lot.

"Oh," Ginny said, finding her voice again. "I'm sure you won't, you'll be off being a famous Auror, or a famous Quidditch star or something."

Her tone was light and jokey, but something about it made Harry think that deep down, she did think that he wouldn't miss her, that he wouldn't mind at all about not seeing her anymore. A quick glance at her purposefully cheerful face confirmed this.

"No, I will," he repeated, his voice quieter and more serious this time. He managed to say it looking at her and this time it was Ginny who flushed prettily, red staining her cheeks.

"Thanks," she said quietly, and the confident, fun loving Ginny had gone, replaced by one who looked like she wanted to believe what he was telling her but didn't in case it wasn't true.

It was gone in a flash, and the confident Ginny returned, but Harry knew it was now or never. He had to do it; otherwise he'd spent the whole year wondering what could have been. A small part of his mind ironically reminded him that he had defeated Voldemort, but couldn't tell the girl her fancied that he liked her. But it was more than that. The girl was _Ginny, _and he didn't think he could live with himself if he messed up the friendship he had grown to rely on.

"Erm," he started, and she turned her face towards him, "I wanted to say thanks, you've been really great this summer with erm, everything really."

She flushed, and Harry noted that he liked watching the way the blush crept over the smattering of freckles on her cheeks.

"That's okay," she replied, looking at him in a way that seemed to give him confidence.

"Yes," his mouth said before he gained any control over it, "and well, the thing is, it did mean a lot to me, and…."

He seemed to have run out of words and knew that his blush was now rivalling anything she had produced. An uncomfortable silence fell whilst Ginny waited for him to finish and he picked nervously at a loose thread on his jeans. Knowing that his courage would leave him for good if he looked at her, he instead faced straight ahead and swallowed.

"And I've found myself…." No, that was wrong and nothing else wanted to come out of his mouth.

Turning to face her, he saw that she was looking at him carefully, as though as trying to work out what he meant, but an undercurrent of hope was visible in her face. She was unconsciously toying with her hair as she looked at him, and Harry found his eyes drawn to it.

"I really like your hair."

The words hovered in the air between them for a minute, freezing both of them into shock. Harry cringed with embarrassment, he had not pictured anything like this at all; he had wanted to just tell her without stuttering and without just blurting what came into his head. He snapped his eyes away from her face and tried to explain himself.

"I didn't mean to say that." The second that left his mouth he knew that he had, if possible, made things even worse as now she would think that he didn't really like her hair. "I mean, I do think you have nice hair, but I didn't mean to say it like that…"

He trailed off as she had done earlier.

"What did you mean to say?" she asked him, still looking at him carefully as though she needed confirmation of whatever thoughts were in her head. It really was now or never.

"That you're…" he swallowed again, thinking how much of a mess he was making of this, "you're really pretty and nice."

Harry closed his eyes. He had pretty much admitted that he liked her without actually saying it and now he didn't want to know whether she was looking at him in pity, wondering what the best way to turn him down would be. Instead, he felt a warm pressure on the side of his face and realised with a jolt that she had kissed his cheek. His eyes flicked open.

"I really like you Harry."

She said it with such ease and confidence that he once again felt ashamed of his own attempt. Her bright eyes were fixed on his and he felt a grin spread across his face like wildfire. She _liked _him.

Somehow, it was much easier to tell her now.

"I like you too Ginny."

Her face lit up in both shock and happiness, and Harry watched the two emotions fight it out on the surface of her face. In the end, shock and doubt won out as she continued to look at him, this time uncertainly.

"Do you?" she asked him, and she was back to being the insecure Ginny, thinking that he wouldn't miss her and he didn't like her. Harry was about to reply that he did, when he noticed that like him, she had closed her eyes against whatever he was about to say. Knowing that she liked him gave him the courage to haltingly close the gap between his face and hers.

It was the first time Harry had ever initiated kissing someone, and the only other person he had kissed was Cho Chang. That had been a bit of a disaster really, and he worried that he wasn't doing it right because at first, she didn't kiss him back. After a few seconds though she began to kiss him back gently, and Harry matched his movements with hers. A pleasant ball of warmth settled itself in the pit of his stomach and he realised that kissing her was wonderful.

A few seconds later, they both pulled back, and she grinned up at him happily. Harry didn't know what to say but found that for once, words were simply not needed. She closed the gap between them again, and this time the kiss lasted longer.

When she pulled back, Harry knew that he had a silly grin on his face but couldn't force himself to stop smiling. She beamed at him and nudged his shoulder with hers. He nudged back and she retaliated by pushing him off the rock into the cool water. He came up drenched and spluttering.

"Serves you right!" she called at him jokingly.

"What for?" he called back, pulling weeds out of his hair. She grinned at him cheekily.

"For not telling me you liked me before!"

Grinning, Harry reached out and pulled her into the lake with him, taking her completely by surprise. When she came up, she opened her mouth, possibly to tell him off for dunking her but instead he pressed his lips against hers and kissed her again. She wrapped her arms round his back and kissed him back. When they drew apart, he beamed at her and she ruffled his soaking hair affectionately, any protests quelled.

The next morning, Harry woke up early to the sounds of Mrs Weasley nagging Ginny to make sure she had her Potions ingredients and enough underwear. Grinning to himself, he got out of bed and helped himself to some toast from the plentiful supply left on the kitchen table by Mrs Weasley. A few minutes later, Ginny herself, along with Hermione, clattered down the stairs, looking fed up at being nagged by her mother. Ginny stopped abruptly when she saw Harry, looking both pleased and nervous. Harry smiled at her, said "morning" and she relaxed happily, stealing some toast of his plate despite the large pile in the centre of the table.

They were just finishing breakfast when Mrs Weasley entered the room, looking harassed. She checked her watch worriedly.

"We'll have to get going soon, Ginny. There's no knowing what the traffic might be like, and we'll have to get a taxi, your father's rushed off his feet at work…"

"Mrs Weasley," Harry said, cutting her off, "I thought I might come with you to the station if that's okay?" Hermione glanced at him shrewdly, and Harry avoided her gaze, but Ginny looked at him happily.

Flustered, Mrs Weasley agreed and Harry went to call a taxi. Ten minutes later, it arrived and she was hurrying them out of the door, just leaving enough time for Ginny to call a quick goodbye to Ron, who was getting ready for his first day of work, and Hermione. Mrs Weasley sat in the front of the taxi with the driver, and Harry was able to give Ginny's hand a quick squeeze during the journey. She turned to him but he looked straight ahead as if nothing had happened and she giggled, squeezing his hand back.

At the train station, whilst Mrs Weasley was busy stowing Ginny's trunk on the train, Ginny grabbed his jumper and pulled him behind one of the pillars. Grinning mischievously, she planted a kiss on his lips and enveloped him in a hug.

"Bye," she said, as he kissed her again, not wanting her to go.

"I'll write to you." He told her as Mrs Weasley climbed down off the train and looked around for Ginny. She went to her mother after replying that she would write to him too.

As the train's engine chugged into life, he and Mrs Weasley waved goodbye to Ginny. Harry watched it leave the station, feeling the same warmth in his stomach as he had done the day before. She was going to Hogwarts and he wouldn't see her for ages, but he had done it, he had told her that he liked her.

And she liked him too.


End file.
